A study was carried out to evaluate the performance and ruminal and intestinal morphology of Santa Inês sheep subjected
to feed restriction followed by refeeding. A total of 40 uncastrated lambs with an approximate age of 120 ± 15 days and
mean body weight (BW) of 17.04 ± 1.18 kg were randomly divided into two groups of BW (20 and 25 kg of BW), which
were subjected to different levels of feed restriction (0%, 25%, and 40% of feed restriction). For performance variables, six
treatments were considered (0, 25%, and 40% of feed restriction for both groups (20 and 25 kg of BW)) and five treatments
for morphometric variables (ad libitum, 25% and 40% for both groups (20 and 25 kg of BW)). All animals were slaughtered
with 14 weeks of experimentation. During the feed restriction phase, the dry matter intake (DMI), feed efficiency (FE), and
average daily gain (ADG) decreased (P < 0.05) as the level of restriction increased. During the refeeding phase, lambs with
20 kg of body weight subjected to restriction presented lower (P < 0.05) DMI in the ad libitum treatment. However, lambs
with 25 kg of body weight under feed restriction presented DMI, FE, and ADG similar (P > 0.05) to the group ad libitum. The
final body weight of restricted lambs after refeeding (both groups 20 and 25 kg of body weight) was lower (P < 0.05) than
lambs feed ad libitum. In relation to morphology, restricted lambs showed greater height ruminal papillae and larger (P < 0.05)
area of ruminal absorption and intestinal absorption, especially the lambs under treatment 40% of feed restriction. The feed
restriction followed by refeeding in sheep provided partial compensatory gain, in addition, caused morphological changes
in the rumen and intestine that allowed greater absorption and possibly compensatory gain in periods of greater refeeding.
The authors would like to thank the Federal University of Campina Grande and Federal University of Paraíba for their technical assistance. This study was supported by CNPq and CAPES
